2s lose to Southborough

The last league game of the season saw us host Southborough on The Green.
Regular readers of our match reports will know that we normally report at this stage on the outcome of the toss. Regular readers will also know exactly what happened again this week.

Croom and Latter opened up. The oppo started with just 9 players although a tenth man arrived soon.
Croom looked a little nervous initially, shuffling his feet and dangling his bat at times. He soon got his poise back and hit some of his usual lofted drives. Latter was his usual steady self.

The pair put on 73 before Croom stopped on a drive and was caught in the covers. An excellent 42.

Star of the opposition bowlers was Rumbles who generated some decent pace off a very short run, bowling seam up with clever off cutters. He took 2 for 18 off his 9 overs.

Harry Slevin was promoted to No 3. A rare opportunity to show the batting talent he has. He played some nice shots but was also caught in the covers, for 8.

Filmer was next in, with the score 109 for 2. The pair progressed smoothly. One of the bowlers despatched some very slow looping deliveries. With no pace on the ball at all it was difficult, but the pair managed to score well off him.

Southborough bowled well at the death. Filmer reached his half century and in the final over Latter picked up a delivery and flicked it over the square leg boundary. The ball was never seen again and he had reached a chanceless century.

We finished on 235 for 2. It was a great total but it could perhaps have been a little more. Again we did not put the fielders under any pressure.
Latter has had an outstanding season with the bat. His judgment of length is tremendous.

We opened the bowling with Benjamin from the White Horse end. His first delivery was a shocker, landing off the cut strip. But thereafter he was immediately in his stride. He conceded 39 off his 8 overs.

Louis French (5-0-30-0) started from the other end. He bowled well but with a few too many loose deliveries.

He was replaced by Luxton (6-0-33-0) who looked sharp and generates a good pace. He hit one of the openers a few times when he was late on pulls. One was in the Crown Jewels.

Horrocks (7-0-45-1) took the first wicket, catching the opener plumb in front.

He should and could have had several more. The other opener got a thin edge and was well caught by Barker standing up. He clearly started to walk off and then changed his mind. The umpire had heard nothing and gave him not out. It was a surprise to us, as the snick was clearly audible, heard even by spectators.

We slightly lost our focus as a result.

Generally we did not field well and put down several chances. Two caught and bowled chances, two behind the stumps and at least three in the outfield, albeit none were sitters. Croom’s opportunity had gone a mile into the sky. Skinner fielded like an old man and there were others who did not seem to be at their best.

Lush replaced Luxton and we did start to take wickets. However the opposition were keeping close to the run rate. Lush finished with 5 wickets for 55 off his 7.1 overs. Barker and Filmer took 2 catches each and Luxton a fine one on the midwicket boundary when the ball appeared out of the sun only at the very last moment.

Despite the late flurry of dismissals Southborough got home with two overs to spare winning by 4 wickets.
A disappointing loss in a game we should have won. But we put the world to rights after being joined by our good friends Stella and Strongbow.